MadProfessah Voting Guide: June 2022 Los Angeles and California Primary Elections

Here are MadProfessah's positions on how I will be voting have voted in the June 7 2022 California Primary Elections. This post will contain  endorsements information from other organizations like the Los Angeles Times,  California Democratic Party, East Area Progressive Democrats and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. 

The 2022 Primary Ballot is quite long. Here are my endorsements (how I am voting) along with information about how others are encouraging you to vote. This link will take you to a printable two page version of this voting guide. Names with an asterisk * are openly LGBTQ+ candidates.

Information about judges of the Superior Court were informed by these two documents by two informed insiders (a former Superior Court judge and Someone who works in the DA's office).

The information here is accurate to the best of my knowledge. YMMV.

LAist also has a very helpful voterguide here: https://laist.com/news/politics/voter-game-plan.

CITYWIDE RACES (Los Angeles)

COUNTYWIDE RACES (Los Angeles)

COUNTY JUDGES (Superior Court)

STATEWIDE RACES 

SATURDAY POLITICS: Poll Shows Close CA-GOV Race Between Newsom and Villaraigosa

There is a recent PPIC poll on the June 2018 primary in California which demonstrates the current state of play in the race for governor (which is open due to term limits preventing 4-term Governor Jerry Brown from appearing on the ballot again) as well as the race for the United States Senate seat currently held by Diane Feinstein.

As in every public poll that has been released testing the California governor's race, Lieutenant Governor (and former San Francisco Mayor) Gavin Newsom is in the lead, with 23 percentage of respondents expressing a preference for him while former Los Angeles Mayor (and former California Assembly Speaker) Antonio Villaraigosa relatively close behind at 18 and State Treasurer and State Controller John Chiang far behind at 9 tied with the highest Republican contender John Cox. In June 2018 all gubernatorial candidates will appear on one ballot and the Top 2, regardless of party will advance to the November 2018 ballot.

In the Senate race it appears as if Senator Feinstein is well ahead of her challenger, State Senate head Kevin de León since she leads by a massive 45% to 21% with "Don't Know" at 33%.
However, as most political pundits know anytime an incumbent (especially one who has been in office since 1994(!)) is below 50%, they should be nervous. That being said it is very likely that again that the two top candidates will now will be the two top candidates in June and thus these races could last until November 2018. This is one of the main problems with state's Top 2 primary (which was put into place by a ballot measure championed by "centrist Republican" Abel Maldonado during the Schwarzenegger era of California politics in 2004). It's very possible California voters will have a chance to repeal the Top 2 Primary system in a November 2018 ballot measure.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Kevin de León Announces Challenge to Dianne Feinstein's Re-election Bid

Whoa! Kevin de León is my State Senator and is the head of the California State Senate. The 50-year-old Latino politician from Los Angeles is termed out of the legislature next year and many people have been wondering what higher office he would seek next. This week he announced that he is running to become a U.S. Senator from California. Currently, California's Senators are Dianne Feinstein (who was elected in 1992) and Kamala Harris, who was elected in 2016. Feinstein recently announced that she would be trying to win a 6th 6-year term in 2018.

de León has announced that he will try to stop that from happening.

Since both are Democrats and California has a top 2 primary it is very likely this race will not e decided in the primary, but almost certainly go the distance to November 2018.

VIDEO: EQCA Encourages LGBT Community To Vote In June 7 California Primary

It's exactly two weeks until California's 2016 Statewide Primary Election on June 7th. Equality California, the state's largest LGBT political advocacy organization, is urging the LGBT community to vote, and will be running PSA on television in important markets like Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs.

MadProfessah Endorsements For March 3, 2015 Los Angeles Municipal Election

Finally, the moment you have been waiting for!  Here are MadProfessah's positions on how I will be voting in the March 3 2015 Los Angeles Municipal Primary Election, compared with endorsements from other organizations like the Los Angeles Times,  California Democratic Party, East Area Progressive Democrats and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. For more information about judicial candidates, check out the LA County Bar Association.

The Ballot is quite short. Here are my endorsements (how I am voting) along with information about how others are encouraging you to vote.

L.A. City Council        MadProf   LA TIMES LA CO DEMS

District 14              MOLINA    Molina      Yes

Citywide Measures        MadProf   LA TIMES LA CO DEMS
Charter Amendment 1       NO        Yes        Yes
Charter Amendment 2       NO        Yes        Yes

Countywide Races          MadProf  LA TIMES  CA DEMS

Comm. Coll. Board, #1     VEGA     Hoffman   ---

Comm. Coll. Board, #3     KAMLAGER Kamlager  Kamlager

Comm. Coll. Board, #5     SVONKIN* Svonkin   Svonkin

Comm. Coll. Board, #7     FONG     Fong      Fong

Tune in later this week for the results... 

SATURDAY POLITICS: Huizar-Molina Race For Los Angeles CD14 Heats Up

As you may recall, I live in Los Angeles City Council District 14 which is represented by Jose Huizar. Huizar is running for re-election in the March 3, 2015 primary and in this heavily Democratic region, winning that race basically would insure his position on the council until 2019 at least. I say "at least" because there is a movement to move municipal elections that typically happen in odd-numbered years (i.e. not in presidential or gubernatorial election years) and align them with those larger turnout elections. There are arguments both for and against this idea (for: having city and county races in the same year will mean that they will occur in the same time frame when people are thinking about other political races; against: the big money that dominates state and federal races will be used to swamp local concerns in local races).

However, Huizar is facing a strong challenge from Gloria Molina, the outgoing Los Angeles County Supervisor, who has been a political power center on the East Side of Los Angeles for decades, and at age 66 has decided to challenge an incumbent city councilman to get a job she held more than 30 years ago.

With the primary barely more than four months away, the two candidates are jockeying for endorsements and donations. On Thursday, both candidates (in addition to MadProfesssah) attended the endorsement meeting of the East Area Progressive Democrats in Eagle Rock, seeking that new club's endorsement. They were both greeted politely and asked probing questions by the audience, with Huizar getting a little testy when he admitted that the "municipal election schedule realignment" that he supports would end up in increasing the length of his own term in office. Molina announced her opposition to the plan, showing a keen awareness of her audience, because EAPD has come out strongly against the proposed plan to align the city's elections with the state's. In the end, though, neither candidate received the high threshold required for an official endorsement by the club.

Huizar has built a substantial lead in fundraising. In fact, he is approaching the record amount raised by any City Councilman in the history of Los Angeles, according to Downtown News columnist Jon Regardie:

This puts Huizar on a record-breaking path. I pored through the Ethics Commission’s online fundraising information, which has data on every city council election going back 11 years. In that time, the only person to raise more money during the primary was Antonio Villaraigosa, who scooped up $773,000 in 2003 when he beat incumbent Nick Pacheco. Of course, AnVil used that seat as a springboard to the mayor’s office two years later.  

Huizar is $38,000 short of the record, but still has more than four months until voters head to the polls in March. Curious fact: The next highest tally in a council primary was recorded by now-Mayor Eric Garcetti, who raised $683,000 for a win against Gary Slossberg in 2009. No, I don’t know who Gary Slossberg is either.

It's curious tat the two people to have raised more money than Huizar went on to become Mayor. Is that Huizar's ultimate plan? He is only 46-years-old now and the current Mayor will be termed out in 2021. Some people think the only reason Molina is running for City Council is to make a future bid for Mayor of Los Angeles more palatable. Maybe the people who are giving money to Huizar don't want to see that happen?

Anyway, I'm sure there will be twists and turns in this race as the March 3 date gets closer and closer.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Molina Announces Challenge To L.A. Councilman Huizar

A political earthquake is reverberating around Los Angeles with the announcement that L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina is going to challenge incumbent Los Angeles City councilman Jose Huizar in the March 2015 municipal primary election.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

With less than three months before she is termed-out after serving more than two decades as a supervisor, Molina said she isn't ready to end her work as a public servant. The 66-year-old said she was concerned about the level of city services being provided in parts of Huizar's district, which stretches from Boyle Heights to Eagle Rock. She also voiced alarm over the lack of women politicians at City Hall. 

[...] 

Molina has been a major presence on the Eastside over the last 23 years, representing a district that stretches from East L.A. to Claremont. During a lunchtime interview in El Sereno, Molina said she was concerned about the financial health of the city. She also argued that parts of Huizar's district, particularly Boyle Heights, have not received enough attention from city officials. 

[...] 

Huizar spokesman Rick Coca responded with a statement from the councilman touting his work in the district, which includes El Sereno, part of Highland Park and most of downtown.  

“From revitalizing Broadway and helping create thousands of jobs downtown, to building new parks, to championing groundbreaking pedestrian-, bike- and business-friendly policies that are the model for the entire city, the service to Council District 14 constituents has never been higher and I look forward to continuing to serve as their councilmember for the next four years," Huizar said.

I happen to live in the 14th City Council District so I shall be watching this election quite closely. Some political observers say it will be beneficial to the residents of the district if a competitive electoral battle to represent us at the City Council.

QUEER QUOTE: HI Gov. Abercrombie Blames 36 Point Primary Loss On Marriage Equality

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie lost the Democratic nomination for Governor by over 36 percentage points a few weeks ago.

This was quite an astonishing rebuke to the sitting governor of a blue state and it was a surprise to some since Abercrombie outspent his opponent 10-to1 but lost by a 2-to-1 margin to state Senator David Ige. Even more surprising, however, is the supposedly progressive ally blaming his support for marriage equality on his electoral defeat, something the Governor did in interviews recently which becomes today's Queer Quote.

Speaking to reporters in his office, Abercrombie said Republicans, who are allowed to vote in the state's open primary, crossed over to vote against him because of his maneuver to legalize gay marriage. He also claimed that religious leaders urged voters to choose his opponent.

"Republicans crossed over en masse to vote in the Democratic primary, and then the religious factor came in," he said, as quoted by the AP. "Doctrinally I was outside the circle and paid for it."

Who is Abercrombie trying to fool? Does he really think there are enough Republican voters in Hawaii to cause a 35-point deficit in a Democratic primary election? Does he think that voters who were asked about what issues were important to them were lying when they did not mention marriage equality?

SATURDAY POLITICS: Pérez Ends Recount Effort, Concedes Defeat To Yee In State Controller Race

One of the closest electoral battles in California history ended Friday when John Pérez ended his bid for a recount and conceded that he had placed 3rd in the June 2014 primary, a mere 481 votes (out of more than 4 million balllots cast)  behind 2nd place finisher Democrat Betty Yee. Pérez continued insistence on a recount was roiling Democratic circles especially since he had failed to pick up many votes and since the Secretary of State had estimated that a full hand recount of all the votes could have taken until early 2015 (2 months after the general election is scheduled to occur!) The Chairman of the California Democratic Party started suggesting the 44-year-old, openly gay former Assembly Speaker was starting to damage his future political prospects.

Pérez sent an email to supporters, saying:

“Today I have made the decision to bring the recount process to an end, and pledge my full support to Betty Yee to be California’s next Controller.   

While I strongly believe that completing this process would result in me advancing to the General Election, it is clear that there are significant deficiencies in the process itself which make continuing the recount problematic. Even in the effort so far, we have found uncounted ballots, but there is simply not enough time to see this process through to the end, given the fact that counties must begin printing ballots in the next few weeks in order to ensure that overseas and military voters can receive their ballots in a timely manner.  

I began this process because every vote deserves to be counted fairly and accurately, and as the recount has made clear, California needs to rethink our approach and incorporate best practices from across the nation. This effort was not about the outcome of a particular election, but the integrity of every election, and the issues brought to the light over the last two weeks need to be addressed in a comprehensive and thoughtful manner. 

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve in the Assembly these last six years, and to have led the Assembly at a time when we’ve turned multi-billion dollar deficits into multi-billion dollar reserves, expanded healthcare for more than three million Californians and made college affordable again by enacting the Middle Class Scholarship Act. I am grateful for the support my campaign has received from everyday Californians who have seen the work my colleagues and I have done in the Legislature, and embraced our vision of fiscally responsible and progressive government which expands opportunity for all Californians. We built a tremendous record of accomplishment together, and I look forward to making contributions to build on that record of progress in the future. 

In the immediate term, I will be continuing my service in the Assembly, and working hard to help elect Democrats up and down California.”

Now, Yee will face Republican Ashley Swearingen in November with Democratic pride to keep all of California's constitutional office in blue hands on the line.

SATURDAY POLITICS: John Duran Snubs Sheila Kuehl In L.A. Supervisor Runoff

In a pretty shocking turn of events, openly gay West Hollywood city councilman John Duran has endorsed Bobby Shriver instead of openly lesbian Sheila Kuehl in the run-off for Los Angeles County Supervisor. Kuehl placed first and Duran third in the June 3 primary election.

Karen Ocamb reports for Frontiers L.A.:

“A lot of our old assumptions are no longer true,” Duran told Frontiers on July 7. “The idea of the first gay this or that has run its course. We just had a lesbian Speaker of the Assembly replace a gay Speaker of the Assembly. We have a gay City Controller and gay City Councilmembers in L.A. and West Hollywood. It was a big issue in the 1990s, and we fought hard for it—to have LGBT people immersed in the power structure. Now we’re in it. We are it. Now how people vote is based not on whether someone is gay or straight—but on whether we agree or disagree with them—and that’s how it should be.” 

Duran said he decided on Shriver after having lunch with both candidates and participating with them in 25 debates. “In all those debates, I found myself agreeing with what Bobby was saying—in particular, his experience and how he perceives local government—and many times I was in disagreement with Sheila.”

This is a very disappointing development. John Duran is a friend of mine and I am stunned to read that he thinks that LGBT people have made so much progress that it is not important whether one of the most powerful important elected positions in the country (Los Angeles County Supervisor) should be filled by an openly gay politician. I vehemently disagree with this sentiment. Even if the person involved was not Sheila Kuehl, one of the smartest politicians ever to serve in the California Legislature (and who was the first openly LGBT member of that body), Duran would still be wrong. The fact that he is endorsing someone other than Kuehl when she is still in the run-off makes Duran's decision worse than wrong.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Yee (Currently) Leads Pérez BY 659 Votes

Last week's Saturday Politics discussed the insanely close vote count between Democrats Betty Yee and John Pérez for the #2 slot in the California State Controller race. Last week, Pérez had a lead but in the latest update on Friday evening by the Secretary of State, Yee now leads by 659 votes (out of well more than 4 million votes cast in this race) over her Democratic rival, with a total of 876,670 compared to 876,011. The two are basically tied with 21.7% of the vote while a Republican is currently well ahead for the #1 run-off spot with 24.8%.

Regardless of who is declared to be the winner, it is very likely there will be a recount, and also likely that a Democrat will end up winning the general election. (After all, if you add up the Republican-leaning votes in the current tally, it only totals 45.8% of the vote.)

SATURDAY POLITICS: Nailbiter Election Between Yee and Pérez For State Controller Run-Off Slot

John Pérez, former openly gay Speaker of the California Assembly and Betty Yee, current member of the powerful but little-understood State Board of Equalization are in an incredibly tight race for the second slot in the Top 2 general election in November 2014. Pérez and Yee are both Democrats, and each won about 21.7% of the ballots cast in the June 3rd primary election, second behind Republican Ashley Swearingen, the Mayor of Fresno, who earned 24.9% of the more than 4.3 million votes cast in the state controller race. Swearingen was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times while neither Perez nor Yee were able to obtain the 60% threshold required for the state or county Democratic Party endorsement.

Yee and Pérez are currently just a few hundred votes apart with the lead switching multiple times as vote counting has continued since June 3rd. On election night, both Democrats were behind a second Republican, Dave Evans who now has 21.2% (and who spent an astonishing $600 on his campaign). A Republican has not been elected to any statewide constitutional office in the last general election of 2010 and the specter of Democrats being shutout from a slot on the ballot due to the Top 2 primary system shocked many observers. As of 5:44pm on Friday June 13th, Pérez has 852,243 and Yee has 851,921, a lead of 322 votes, or 0.008% of all votes cast. That is basically a tie!

It's likely (but not certain) that whichever Democrat comes second will be favored to win the Controller's race in November as the Party unites to keep its lock on the state constitutional offices in California in the 2014 general election.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Will L.A. Have An Openly Gay County Supervisor?

Hmmm! The plot thickens in the low-profile but incredibly important Democratic primary election for Los Angeles County Supervisor on June 3rd. The L.A. County Supervisor is one of the most powerful elected positions in the country, with each of the 5 Supervisors representing roughly 2 million Angelenos, more than several U.S. Senators. There are two Districts up for election this year, District 1 where Gloria Molina is being termed out and is likely to be replaced by former Congresswoman (and Obama Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis) and District 3 where 8 candidates are vying for the top two slots, with two openly gay candidates are serious contenders. MadProfessah has already endorsed Sheila Kuehl. Kuehl announced her intentions to run for this seat years ago and has had a historic political career as the first openly LGBT member of the Assembly and the Senate. Kuehl has also won the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Club and the East Area Progressive Democrats.

Last Sunday the Los Angeles Times picked John Duran over Kuehl in its endorsement for the 3rd District, possibly upending the race.

Kuehl, to be sure, has a strong record in those areas as well, and her knowledge of and experience in state government would be of great benefit to the county, which gets much of its funding and many of its programming guidelines from Sacramento. Of the two, though, Duran gets the nod because he is also the one most likely to lead the county toward new and better ways of thinking about and doing its business.

The primary election is less than two weeks away. Voting has been going on  by mail for at least two weeks already. Thanks to a stupid ballot initiative that passed in June 2012, California now has a "Top 2 jungle primary" which means that regardless of party, only the Top 2 candidates will be on the November ballot after surviving the primary. I have my absentee ballot and will be giving my endorsements next weekend.

It would be incredibly exciting if the top two candidates are openly gay, but most likely Bobby Shriver and either Kuehl or Duran will make the cutoff. If both LGBT candidates do make the run-off there will be an internal lesbians versus gays fight like we have not seen since the 2012 battle between Torie Osborne (Kuehl's former lover and longtime ally) and Betsy Butler (Duran's straight best friend who has served on the board of Equality California). In fact some say that Duran's entry into the Supervisor race is basically payback for some of the chicanery that occurred in the bitter fight in 2012 for the 50th Assembly District (where both their candidates lost and Richard Bloom ended up winning the seat).

Hopefully this time an LGBT candidate will emerge victorious, instead of bloodied and defeated.

Frank Schubert's Lesbian Sister Running For Sacramento County DA

Interesting political news out of Sacramento today. Frank Schubert is well-known to readers of this blog as the mastermind behind California's ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, and many other ballot campaigns against marriage equality. It has been well-known for quite awhile that Schubert has a lesbian sister, but now Anne Marie Schubert is running for District Attorney of Sacramento County, as a openly gay Republican. During the Proposition 8 battle back in 2008 it was not known that Schubert existed and many people feel like if she had come out publicly at the time then it may have had an impact on the election.

Most openly gay candidates get the support of the LGBT community, but when you're the sister of the LGBT community's public enemy number one that is unlikely.

The Sacramento Bee's Marcus Breton reports

Schubert isn’t running as a gay candidate but as a champion for public safety. She doesn’t hide her orientation but doesn’t think it should define her, either. 

“Don’t vote for me because I’m gay or not gay. Vote for me because I’m the most qualified for the job,” she said. 

That Schubert is open but not an advocate for anything but the principles of her profession partly describes why Sacramento’s gay community is glaringly outside her varied tent of supporters. 

Ultimately, DAs are best judged by their record of achieving justice. 

But Schubert’s ascension and her disconnect with politically active segments of Sacramento’s gay community would have been unimaginable a few years ago. 

It was only eight years ago that West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon “came out” to his constituents after virtually hiding who he was his entire political career.

I think that the main reason Ms. Schubert is not going to be endorsed by the LGBT community in Sacramento County is not that she's a republican but that she is not really friendly to or supportive of the LGBT community.

California Progress Report discussed the dilemma in Sacramento's LGBT community:

Public records show both Schuberts are registered as Republicans, while the candidate's two opponents, Maggy Krell and Todd Leras, are registered Democrats. 

Ms. Schubert's oldest brother, Frank, made millions of dollars stripping away equal marriage rights of homosexuals at the ballot box in California and Maine in 2008. Because of the familial connection to the fight against marriage equality, Ms. Schubert's run for District Attorney has proven to be divisive among the region's LGBT advocacy community. 

"I don't hold Anne Marie accountable for the actions of her brother," Darrick Lawson, the past president of Sacramento's Rainbow Chamber of Commerce whose group surprised many with its recent endorsement of Schubert's leading opponent, Krell. "I hold her accountable for her own actions, and more importantly, her own inactions. 

"I believe there is one Californian in 2008 who was uniquely qualified to make a difference during the Prop 8 campaign, and that was Anne Marie Schubert. If she had stood on the Capitol steps with her partner and their two children, the debate would have changed immediately," Lawson claimed. 

While Frank Schubert designed a successful campaign that promoted the idea that children would somehow be damaged or diminished to be knowledgable of same-sex unions, his sister and now candidate for District Attorney worked and lived in Sacramento with her Domestic Partner, Julie Greenberg, raising two young children the approximate age of the young boy, Joey Wirthlin, politically exploited by her brother to get California voters to strip away the right of their gay fellow citizens to marry.

What do you all think?

What

I
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/16/6240784/marcos-breton-why-gays-oppose.html#storylink=cpy

SATURDAY POLITICS: California Voter Registration By Party, 1998-2014

California's Secretary of State released figures on voter registration as mandated by law 60 days before the June 3, 2014 primary election. The data show the dramatic increase in the number of voters who select the "No Party Preference" option as well as the dramatic collapse of the Republican brand in California. Independents went from 12.2% of registrants in 1998 to 21.1% in 2014. In that same period Republican's share went from 35.8% to 28.6%. Democrats have slowly decreased, from a high if 46.8 in 1998 to 43.5% now. Bizarrely, there are now more counties where Republicans (31) outnumber Democrats (27).

However, the top 10 counties by Democratic registration are:

1. San Francisco 56.27%
2. Alameda 56.06%
3. Santa Cruz 54.43%
4. Marin 54.38%
5. Sonoma 51.80% 
6. San Mateo 51.01% 
7. Monterey 50.96% 
8. Los Angeles 50.64%
9. Imperial 50.14%
10. Contra Costa 49.41%

Happily, this includes the largest country in the state, Los Angeles. There are now 17,660,486 registered voters, up from 16,897,383. That equates to 73.3% of eligible voters being registered.

Hat/tip to KPCC

SATURDAY POLITICS: L.A. County Democrats Endorse Kuehl, Solis, Prang

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party has issued their endorsements in a series of high profile country races.

The LACDP has endorsed two openly LGBT candidates for two important positions: Sheila James Kuehl for County Supervisor (District 3) and Jeffrey Prang (Los Angeles County Assessor). They also endorsed progressive Hilda Solis (and former Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration) for County Supervisor in District 1 (the district I live in).

The County Supervisor positions are incredibly powerful. There are only 5 such positions representing the concerns of more than 10 million Los Angeles County residents, so they have more constituents than all Congresspeople and some United States Senators! Thanks to term limits, two slots are opening up, with the forced retirements of Gloria Molina (District 1) and Zev Yaroslavsky (District 3).

MadProfessah has also endorsed Solis and Kuehl in these races already.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Will The Next Mayor of Long Beach Be LGBT?

Robert Garcia	Gerrie Schipske

There is an electoral campaign underway to become the next Mayor of Long Beach, the second largest city (of 99!) in Los Angeles County, seventh largest in California and 36th largest nationwide. There are two prominent LGBT candidates running for Mayor of Long Beach: Vice-Mayor (and City Councilman) Robert Garcia, 35, and City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, 62. Garcia has represented District 1 since 2009 and Schipske has represented District 5 since 2006. If either is elected in April 2014 they would be Long Beach's first Mayor who is openly LGBT. Long Beach is considered to have a relatively large fraction of the population that is LGBT and according to official census data about 1% of all city households are same-sex couples.

From Garcia's campaign website:

Dr. Robert Garcia was elected Vice Mayor of Long Beach by a unanimous vote in July, 2012, becoming the youngest person ever to hold that position. He was first elected to the Long Beach City Council in April of 2009, and re-elected to a full four-year term in April 2010 to serve the citizens of the First City Council District.

Robert is also a California Coastal Commissioner.  He was appointed by the California State Senate Rules Committee in January of 2013, and in that role serves as one of 12 commissioners tasked with protecting the California Coast and overseeing all development up and down the state.

He is a member of the public policy and communications faculty at the University of Southern California, and has taught Communication Studies at both Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach City College. Robert's passion for education led him to pursue a Doctorate in Higher Education, which he was awarded in 2010 after publishing his dissertation on California's Master Plan for Education.

Robert also holds a Masters Degree in Communication Management from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor's Degree in Communication Studies from California State University, Long Beach.

In 2007, Robert co-founded and launched the Long Beach Post, a Long Beach based media website and newspaper. Today, the Long Beach Post has over 80,000 online subscribers, and a print edition of over 25,000 copies.

From Schipske's campaign website:

Gerrie was elected in 1992 to the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees where she focused on expanding vocational training programs and implementing the "seamless educational system" with LBUSD and CSULB. As President of the Board she guided the start of district elections.



She was elected to the Long Beach City Council in 2006 and re-elected with over 64% of the vote in 2010.

​
Gerrie is an adjunct faculty member at CSULB and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on public administration, intergovernmental relations, human resources management, healthcare law and California government. She also teaches at the Senior University at CSULB (OLLI).
​
Gerrie has written three books on the history of her hometown: Rosie the Riveter in Long Beach; Early Aviation in Long Beach; and Early Long Beach. The books are available from Arcadia Publishing and local bookstores.

​
​Gerrie and her partner, Flo Pickett, have been together 33 years and raised a son and two daughters. They are Grandma and Nana to a wonderful 3 year old girl.

It appears as if the fight to be Mayor of Long Beach recently got more complicated when former Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (who used to represent District 1) announced recently that she was entering the mayoral race. Former NFL player Damon Dunn who is also a City Councilman has raised the most money so far.

MadProfessah will be following this local race with interest!

Hat/tip to Karen Ocamb

LA TIMES Endorses Eric Garcetti For Mayor

The primary election for Los Angeles Mayor is in exactly 14 days, on Tuesday March 7, 2013. MadProfessah has endorsed Eric Garcetti, not just because he used to teach at Occidental College, where I am a mathematics professor, but simply because he was the first person to ask me, way back in October 2012, to endorse his candidacy for Mayor.

There is not much to separate the three major Democratic candidates, Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and Jan Perry regarding LGBT issues and other progressive issues that are important to me. That being said, the Stonewall Democrats, the Los Angeles-area LGBT Democratic club has endorsed Garcetti while the Los Angeles County Democratic Party was unable to come to consensus on an endorsement.

This past Sunday, the Los Angeles Times also endorsed Garcetti:

Los Angeles is an underachieving city led in recent decades by a succession of underachieving mayors — people who came in with big dreams or big talk but soon got bored with the day-to-day task of steering a municipality. Voters don't get to conduct a casting call or sift through hundreds of applicants until they identify the ideal candidate, but must instead choose from a field prescreened by the political and fundraising processes. This year that field fails to include a candidate who stands out as the obviously superior choice. The task for voters then becomes to scrutinize track records, eliminate the worst hazards and seek potential that can be forged, with the proper pressure and continued voter vigilance, into accomplishment.

The candidate with the most potential to rise to the occasion and lead Los Angeles out of its current malaise and into a more sustainable and confident future is Eric Garcetti.

Read the full endorsement yourself. Do you agree?

2013 L.A. City Elections: The Mayoral Contenders

The four main contenders for the Mayor of Los Angeles are City Controller Wendy Greuel, 51, City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, 41, Councilmember Jan Perry, 58, and gay Republican  Kevin James, 49.

The Los Angeles Times breaks down the race:

Greuel claims an advantage because she's the only candidate to have won a citywide contest. She's landed endorsements from a number of prominent Latino politicians, as well as Democratic Sen.Barbara Boxer and entertainment titans Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, who ran the DreamWorks motion picture studios when she was an executive there.

Her campaign believes that female voters will also be key, galvanized by the potential of electing the first female mayor in city history. Taken together, it's a coalition that will get her to the general election, Greuel campaign strategist John Shallman says, and then give her the win, probably against Garcetti.

Garcetti's camp isn't conceding anything. Son of former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, he is backed by the Latino Coalition of Los Angeles-PAC and recently won an important endorsement from the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley.

He identifies himself as half Latino, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, and often addresses Latino audiences in fluent Spanish. Although he now lives in Silver Lake, he's a Valley boy, having grown up in Encino before leaving for college at Columbia.

[...]

Perry believes she'll draw not only the 10% to 13% of votes cast by African Americans, but also fiscal conservatives who like her tough-on-unions talk and pivotal council role in shaping downtown redevelopment.

When people find out she's Jewish, her share of that vote grows dramatically, Perry says, citing internal polling. She also thinks she'll do well among working-class white women and Latinas, who see her as an aspirational figure.

[...]

James, the only candidate to support Riordan's proposal to switch new city workers from defined pensions into self-managed 401(k)-style retirement plans, said he would emphasize that stance and his status as the only major candidate not embedded in the City Hall establishment.

GOP ad man Fred Davis recently created a Super PAC to independently support James, and the candidate also believes he'll draw backing from voters disaffected with City Hall.

However, political analysts say a big infusion of outside cash could end up hurting instead of helping the race's only Republican candidate. Los Angeles is largely Democratic, liberal and suspicious of large sums spent to frame a campaign.

The primary election is March 5, 2013 with the run off on May 21, 2013 (my birthday!)

A Gay Republican Mayor of Los Angeles?

Kevin James is a former conservative radio talk-show host and gay Republican who has declared his candidacy for Mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayoral primary election is March 5, 2013 and James is facing off against three other declared Democratic candidates, former City Council president Eric Garcetti, City councilwoman Jan Perry and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Millionaire real-estate developed Rick Caruso declined to join the race in October 2012.

Currently, Garcetti is considered the slight front-runner in the race, which is confirmed by fundraising totals which show him slightly ahead of Greuel and both way ahead of Perry.

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti has raised $2.87 million for his mayoral bid, edging ahead of City Controller Wendy Greuel by about $72,000 in the search for campaign cash, according to figures released Wednesday by the two campaigns.

Garcetti raised $664,000 in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $592,000 collected by Greuel, who has taken in $2.8 million since launching her campaign.

[...]

Garcetti reported $2.35 million still available in his coffers, compared with $2.25 million for Greuel.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Jan Perry reported raising $1.3 million since the start of her campaign, including more than $150,000 over the last three months. Perry said she wasn't worried about her third-place position in the money race.

"I will continue to raise money till election day," Perry said. "And I will have enough money to run my race in a competitive manner."

Former prosecutor Kevin James reported collecting a campaign total of $275,090 as of the end of last month. A fifth candidate, tech company executive Emanuel Pleitez, reported raising slightly more than $110,000 since joining the race in July.

If no candidate gets more than 50% on March 5, there will be a run-off between the two top vote-getters on May 21, 2013 (my birthday!)

The latest wrinkle in the money race is a report this weekend that a Super PAC run by a Republican political operative says it may spend $4 million to promote Kevin James' candidacy.

Looking to dramatically tip the scales in the race for Los Angeles' next mayor, a nationally prominent Republican media strategist has formed a "super PAC" that aims to spend millions of dollars to elect dark-horse mayoral candidate Kevin James.

Fred Davis, a GOP advertising man who has worked on campaigns for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina and former President George W. Bush, said the Better Way LA committee has raised nearly $500,000 on behalf of James and plans to collect at least $3.5 million more.

Will Republicans in Los Angeles (and California) really rally behind a openly gay candidate for Mayor? And is Kevin James going to become the first openly LGBT head of a major city after openly lesbian Annise Parker of Houston?

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is termed out and can not run for re-election.